Deterred from career because of salary

[Narmerguy]

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I'm the last person who would say you shouldn't go into medicine for the money, but you come off as a huge douchebag if your only reason for being against neuroscience is the $90k/year average salary.

I mean, I could understand someone not choosing a career line that doesn't make enough money to live off of (say, music or art or something). But looking down at $90k/year? Thats very 1% of you to say >.<

Well if there's an alternative career path that could be paying $200k/year, I don't think it's ludicrous to feel squeamish about going for less than half that. Money talks in society, and those with money get first choice on things like safe neighborhoods, quality of kids education, relaxing vacations, etc etc. Maybe in a world where someone making $200k+ would have so many advantages (that are passed on to their kids) compared to $90k/year I could see it being douchy to balk at $90k.

But that's not true, at least not in this country. That's a huge difference in salary. I think it's a shame, and I personally would not need a job to pay more than $90k for me to be happy, but I'm certainly not going to pretend that there's some kind of marginal difference between the salary of a specialist physician and a neuroscientist. Don't get mad at him, get mad at the system.

 

[Charles Darwin]

Comparing an amount to what global percentile that puts you in is *****ic when talking about living in the US. You can't survive here on the average global income (1k puts you in the top 44% or so, according to that site 🙄 ). If you want to talk about how much 90k is compared to the US average, you would have an argument, but comparing 90k to the entire world, much of which includes starvation and lack of sanitary water, among many, many other things that are taken for granted here, is completely pointless. Sure, sites like that above are great to show how lucky we are to be living in an industrialized country, but completely meaningless to determine how much is "a lot of money" when living in the US.👎

🙄


Don't have time to respond to this fully, but that's ridiculous. I'll be back later to retort.

 

[Praefectus]

90k is pretty decent coin. If you're really worried that you'll be poor, don't live in NY, Chicago, or LA. You'll be wealthy in the South or the Midwest (where the cost of living is ludicrously low).

 

[MiracleforMD]

90k is pretty decent coin. If you're really worried that you'll be poor, don't live in NY, Chicago, or LA. You'll be extremely wealthy in the South or the Midwest (where the cost of living is ludicrously low).

Is this actually a serious post?

 

[def1]

Comparing an amount to what global percentile that puts you in is *****ic when talking about living in the US. You can't survive here on the average global income (1k puts you in the top 44% or so, according to that site 🙄 ). If you want to talk about how much 90k is compared to the US average, you would have an argument, but comparing 90k to the entire world, much of which includes starvation and lack of sanitary water, among many, many other things that are taken for granted here, is completely pointless. Sure, sites like that above are great to show how lucky we are to be living in an industrialized country, but completely meaningless to determine how much is "a lot of money" when living in the US.👎

Even in the US 90k puts you in the top 25%

Anyone who thinks that its not enough money is one selfish spoiled and out of touch with reality

 

[idontcaureuknow]

Even in the US 90k puts you in the top 25%

Anyone who thinks that its not enough money is one selfish spoiled and out of touch with reality

To be honest sir/mam, I don't respect your tone. If someone's goal is to make more money, that is perfectly fine. I know how I enjoy living my life, and it's achievable on an income of like 35k a year as a young bachelor. But others may have more obligations, may have to support parents, ect. There is much more out there than just a number. Please, be civil and non-judgmental.

As I said earlier, factoring in the debt you owe loan companies, it's all very scary. When if the OP simply pursues a different specialty he/she could be making approximately 110k more, I believe it's a legitimate concern. He/she is already making the big jump by deciding on medical school.

Edit: Please note, I'm referencing your tone in the first paragraph. Not you. I do in fact respect you as a person and your opinion that 90k is quite well off. I actually agree 90k is very nice. I just don't like the judgmental aspects of this thread.

 

[HughMyron]

The problem with neuroscience is not the money, it's actually getting a job as a scientist and not as a perpetual postdoc, where you'll probably only take home 30-40K or less for ridiculous amounts of time worked.

Even in the US 90k puts you in the top 25%

Anyone who thinks that its not enough money is one selfish spoiled and out of touch with reality

90K is great living for a bachelor, but it will get you nowhere if you want to raise a family.

 

[Sidereum]

I think the people arguing over the 90K issue need to remember that, if it were in anything else, 90K would be great! It's twice the national average, and one could easily raise a family comfortably with that kind of salary. However, with med school debt, I imagine it would be a really scary prospect, especially when you have dozens of >200K specialties that you could go into instead.

 

[Spinach Dip]

the problem with neuroscience is not the money, it's actually getting a job as a scientist and not as a perpetual postdoc, where you'll probably only take home 30-40k or less for ridiculous amounts of time worked.

THIS!

I have a couple acquaintances who have been 'post-docs' for several years, with no chance yet for advancement. Now, call me selfish, but if I get a doctorate-level degree, I want it to actually come with a decent job attached.

 

[Praefectus]

Is this actually a serious post?

Poor choice of words, but Southern/Midwestern people with that kind of money are relatively wealthy compared to NY/LA. I know that you need $250k to be considered middle class in the latter, but ~$40k would be roughly equivalent in the former.

 

[antonius89]

My dad is a mechanic and makes over $80k a year and struggles to make a living. He has to commute because he can't afford to live in LA. I don't think $80k is a lot unless you're starting out.

 

[antonius89]

The problem with neuroscience is not the money, it's actually getting a job as a scientist and not as a perpetual postdoc, where you'll probably only take home 30-40K or less for ridiculous amounts of time worked.





90K is great living for a bachelor, but it will get you nowhere if you want to raise a family.

Thank you!

 

[pv515]

.

 

[0TopCat0]

Anyone thinking clearly about his financial situation would not go to private school for undergrad. Despite how sound you think your financial decision making is, you've already fallen for the biggest scam to ever befall the 18-22 year old demographic.

You'd probably just squander anything more than 80k a year anyway on lotto tickets and brand name clothing anyway.

That'd be a lot of lotto tickets

 

[ChartaBona]

That'd be a lot of lotto tickets

My stepfather used to make six figures. He would buy $50 of scratch tickets a day. In addition to that, he and my mom each smoked a pack a day, chewed tons of nicotine gum, drove gas guzzlers, and went to the casino fairly often. When he lost his job, they had to declare bankruptcy. Even after getting a new job this summer, they still consider themselves broke (their combined income is ~100k now).

They still insist that they never had the money to get me braces as a child. They also said they won't be able to spare me a cent when I'm in medical school. I wish need-based aid took into account the fact that your parents are bankrupt, have terrible credit, and are incapable of saving money, instead of just going by gross income.

 

[ShenanigansMD]

I don't think a Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience will allow you to make 80k/year.

Even then, you have to consider the opportunity cost of all those years of medical training where you aren't making 80k/year. The argument you're proposing here OP is a little more complicated than just 80k versus 250k.

Edit: If you're talking PhD then there's definitely a lot more to think about than what SDN can offer.

 

[0TopCat0]

I am talking PhD sir

 

[Dystopian]

Along with that, I have family financial obligations that, although were never asked of me to fulfill, if I don't fulfill them, no one else will.

I can relate to this. I have been deterred from careers that I find more appealing than medicine because while the pay is not bad, it is not as good as a physician's salary, and in the back of my mind, I think about my family's financial situation: immigrants; parents recently went bankrupt and lost their house, haven't worked steadily in the past four years, have little education and no savings; etc. I have siblings who can't even take care of themselves, let alone two aging parents, and I feel a lot of pressure to be the one to fill that void -- on top of wanting to enter a profession that will allow me to finance my own dreams. So when somebody says that 90k isn't enough, it may not be, and it has nothing to do with being out of touch with reality. In fact, it may show the opposite.

 

[impact2d]

Local is a huge reason for varied opinions on this forum. 80k where I live is barely enough for a middle class life. My dad makes 100k after 25 years (started around 45k) and had to move my family an hour,away from where he works to afford a fairly humble house and this is without the massive student debt we are saddled with today. Between gas, utilities, feeding us, putting us through college, etc. They have very little money for anything else

Yet my family in Texas lives like royalty at 90k
Sent from my ADR6400L using SDN Mobile

 

[RosettaStoned]

90k is in fact quite a large sum of money, although it is irrelevant because no one knows how/when/where the OP wants to live... I personally (i know who doesn't?) want to make enough to where i don't have to worry about things(anything at all) financially... (I know how horrible of me)

Fact: 90k is a lot of money and a family can live very well off of it
Fact: At that salary more than likely you still have financial stress from things like college.

It all comes down to what it takes to make YOU happy. If your happy at 90k then be happy.... Some people won't/wouldn't be.

 

[pinipig523]

90K is a good amount of money, but if the OP has dreams of making more, then let him (or her).